It's all explained here (in 3/4 time of course)

The Lilt of a Grandmother's Song

In the lilt of a Grandmother's song
That's where I learned right from wrong
there were maidens who sighed
there were martyrs who died
In the lilt of a Grandmother's song

With her silvery hair in her old rocking chair
she sang of a spinning wheel turning
when her son left the shore
to return nevermore
she sang of a fond Mother's yearning

In the lilt of a Grandmother's song
That's where I learned right from wrong
there were maidens who sighed
there were martyrs who died
In the lilt of a Grandmother's song

She sang me to sleep with songs of the deep
St. Brendan who sailed the world over
of pretty colleens
and the smell of poteen
gold sovereigns and a wild rover

In the lilt ...

From the old Shannon shore to the Mountains of Mourne
songs of laughter and kissing the Blarney
of the Orange and Green
and old Skibbereen
and the hills and the lakes of Killarney

In the lilt ...

Copyright Bert Hansell 2002